Thera 10.2: Ekavihariya (Tissa-Kumara)
Tipitaka >> Sutta Pitaka >> Khuddaka Nikaya >> Theragatha >> Thera(234):Ekavihariya (Tissa-Kumara) Adapted from the Archaic Translation by Mrs. C.A.F. Rhys Davids. Note: 'C' in Pali text is pronounced as 'ch' as in 'China'. ---- Chapter X. Ten Verses =234. Ekavihāriya (Tissa-Kumāra)= He was reborn in this Buddha-age, after the Exalted One(Buddha) had passed away, as the youngest brother of the King Dhammāsoka. And King Asoka, in the 218th year after that Passing Away, having united all India in one empire, and made his own younger brother Tissa viceroy, enlisted Tissa's friendship for the Sāsana by a single stratagem.1 Now the prince, while hunting, was so impressed at the sight of the Greek Thera, Mahā Dhammarakkhita,2 seated under a tree, that he also longed to live so in the forest. When he had seen the Thera's supernormal powers, he 252 returned to the palace and told the king he wished to leave the world(for monkhood). Asoka could not in any way dissuade him. Longing for the happiness of the monk, he uttered these verses: ---- 537 Purato pacchato vā pi aparo ce na vijjati,|| Atīva phāsu bhavati rakassa vasato vane.|| || 538 Handa eko gamissāmi araññaɱ buddhavaṇṇitaɱ,|| Phāsu1 ekaviharissa pahitattassa bhikkhuno.|| || 539 Yogī pītikaraɱ rammaɱ mattakuñjarasevitaɱ,|| Eko atthavasī khippaɱ pavisissāmi kānanaɱ.|| || 540 Supupphite sītavane sītale girikandare,|| Gattāni parisiñcitvā caŋkamissāmi ekako.|| || 541 Ekākiyo adutiyo ramaṇīye mahāvane,|| Kadāhaɱ viharissāmi katakicco anāsavo.|| || 542 Evaɱ me kattukāmassa adhippāyo samijjhatu,|| Sādhayissāmahaɱ yeva nāñño aññassa kārako.|| || 543 Esabandhāmi sannāhaɱ pavisissāmi kānanaɱ,|| Na tato nikkhamissāmi appatto āsavakkhayaɱ.|| || 544 Mālute upavāyante sīte surabhigandhike,|| Avijjaɱ dāḷayissāmi nisinno nagamuddhani.|| || 545 Vane kusumasañjanne pabbhāre nūna sītale,|| Vimuttisukhena sukhito ramissāmi giribbaje.|| || 546 Sohaɱ 58 paripuṇṇasaɱkappo cando paṇṇaraso yathā,|| Sabbāsava parikkhīṇo natthi dāni punabbhavo' ti.|| || ---- 537 If there be none in front, nor none behind Be found, is one alone and in the woods Exceeding pleasant did his life become.3 538 Come then! alone I'll get me hence and go To lead the forest-life the Buddha praised,4 And taste the welfare which the Monk knows, Who lives alone with concentrated mind. 539 Yes, swiftly and alone, bound to my quest,5 I'll to the jungle that I love, the place Of wild elephants, the source and means Of thrilling zest to each ascetic being.6 540 In Cold Woodland's flowery glades cool waters lie,7 Within the hollows of the hills; and there I'll bathe my limbs when hot and tired, and there At large in ample solitude I'll roam. (540) 541 253 Lone and unmated in the lovely woods, When shall I come to rest, work done, heart cleansed? 542 O that I might win through, who am so glad! I only may achieve the task; in this None for his fellow-man can aught avail.8 543 I'll bind my spirit's armour on, and so The jungle will I enter, that from there I'll not come forth until Nibbāna's won.9 544 I'll seat me on the mountain-top, the while The wind blows cool and fragrant on my brow, And burst the baffling mists of ignorance. 545 Then on the flower-carpet of the wood, Soon in the cool cavern of the cliff, Blessed in the bliss of Liberty I'll take Mine comfort on you, old Fastness of the Crag.10 546 Lo! I am he whose purpose is fulfilled. And rounded as the moon on fifteenth day. Destroyed all deadly canker, sane, immune, I know rebirth comes never again for me. ---- 1 This is told in the Mahāvaṃsa, ch. v., ver. 154 160. Iremain., 161-172, is a metrical parallel to Dhammapāla's prose account in the following paragraph, which is slightly condensed. 2 Yonaka-Mahā-Dhammarakkhitathera. This Thera, not elsewhere called Greek, is mentioned, Mahāvaṃsa, loc. cit.; Dīpavaṃsa. viii. 8; Sāmantapāsādika, pp. 314, 317. 3 I was inclined, before gaining access to the Commentary, to see in these lines the sentiment of Sutta-Nipāta, verse 645 (iii., 9, 52). To him for whom there's nothing in the world Either before or after or between- Nothing at all to take or to possess. ... But the Commentary's brief comment reveals, not the detachment of the arahant(enlightened), but the longing of the court dignitary to be rid of the perpetual attendance of oourtiers, retainers, soldiers, etc., ever before and behind and around, sycophantic, or slaves of etiquette, and perhaps traitorous, or at least backbiting. The name adopted by, or fastened on Prince Tissa, Ekavihāriya, means Lone-dweller. 4 Vinaya Texts, ii 812, 813 Cf. Bud. Suttas, p. 210 ff.; Sutta-Nipāta, verses 34-74, etc. 5 Atthavasī, 'in submission to the business of a monk' (Cy.). 6 Yogi-pīti-karaṃ. 7 The wood contains six pools, writes Dhammapāla. 8 The beautiful poem reads better uninterrupted by prose; but Dhammapāla gives it in three sections. Section 2 describes Tissa's burst of delighted energy after his initiation into monkhood, Asoka having conducted both him and his son-in-law (and nephew), Aggibrahmā, to the Vihāra(monastery) with great pomp and ceremony (a last ordeal for Tissa's tastes!). 9 Lit., until the āsavas are destroyed. 10 Giribbājā, the 'mountain stronghold' near Rājagaha. The ruined fortifications, miles in circumference, are still extant, and are the most ancient stone buildingB yet found in India. The 'newer' Rājagaha is said to have been chiefly the work of King Bimbisāra, the Buddha's contemporary (Buddhist India, p. 87). The last section is the dying utterance of Tissa ('Lone-dweller'). He is related to have gone with his instructor (Dhammarakkhita) to the Kalinga country, a great and noted forest tract (cf. Majjh., i. 378) on the east coast, south of Rājagaha. There Asoka built for him the Vihāra(monastery) of Bhojaka-Giri. In Kalinga are the Asoka inscriptions of Dhauli and Jaugada (Cunningham, Corp. Inscr. Ind., i. 15 ff.). ----